4 ms·

I'm surprised that the author of the article managed to make an entire essay without once referring to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Perhaps the simplest explanat

I'm surprised that the author of the article managed to make an entire essay without once referring to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Perhaps the simplest explanation of the SWH is "language cuts the grooves in which our minds move." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity Lakoff has made this more popular and accessable to non-linguist with books like "Women, Fire and Dangerous Things" (which I recommend reading, and the author mentioned briefly). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lakoff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lakoff

WalterGR 17y ago
I took a class from George at Berkeley. We used Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought as the text. Absolutely fascinating stuff. The article (http://edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html http://edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index....) is well worth reading. She explains that English speakers will usually refer to a "short movie" or "long movie," and that Spanish and Greek speakers will usually say "small movie" or "big movie." Then: "Our research into such basic cognitive abilities as estimating duration shows that speakers of different languages differ in ways predicted by the patterns of metaphors in their language. (For example, when asked to estimate duration, English speakers are more likely to be confused by distance information, estimating that a line of greater length remains on the test screen for a longer period of time, whereas Greek speakers are more likely to be confused by amount, estimating that a container that is fuller remains longer on the screen.)" That one parenthetical sentence blew my mind. Edit: Added some missing context to the article quote.

4 ms·

I'm surprised that the author of the article managed to make an entire essay without once referring to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Perhaps the simplest explanat

by Tangurena 17y ago

WalterGR 17y ago
I took a class from George at Berkeley. We used Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought as the text. Absolutely fascinating stuff. The article (http://edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html http://edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index....) is well worth reading. She explains that English speakers will usually refer to a "short movie" or "long movie," and that Spanish and Greek speakers will usually say "small movie" or "big movie." Then: "Our research into such basic cognitive abilities as estimating duration shows that speakers of different languages differ in ways predicted by the patterns of metaphors in their language. (For example, when asked to estimate duration, English speakers are more likely to be confused by distance information, estimating that a line of greater length remains on the test screen for a longer period of time, whereas Greek speakers are more likely to be confused by amount, estimating that a container that is fuller remains longer on the screen.)" That one parenthetical sentence blew my mind. Edit: Added some missing context to the article quote.